Machine Learning Interview Cheat sheets
Aqeel Anwar
Last Updated: March 2021
This document contains cheat sheets on various topics asked during a Machine Learning/Data science interview. This document is constantly updated to include more topics.
Click here to get the updated version
Table of Contents
Basics of Machine Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1. Bias-Variance Trade-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Imbalanced Data in Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Principal Component Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Bayes’ Theorem and Classifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Regression Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Regularization in ML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7. Convolutional Neural Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8. Famous CNNs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9. Ensemble Methods in Machine Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Behavioral Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1. How to prepare for behavioral interview? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
2. How to answer a behavioral question? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Page 1 of 14
Cheat Sheet – Bias-Variance Tradeoff
What is Bias?
• Error between average model prediction and ground truth
• The bias of the estimated function tells us the capacity of the underlying model to
predict the values
What is Variance?
• Average variability in the model prediction for the given dataset
• The variance of the estimated function tells you how much the function can adjust
to the change in the dataset
High Bias
Overly-simplified Model
Under-fitting
High error on both test and train data
High Variance
Overly-complex Model
Over-fitting
Low error on train data and high on test
Starts modelling the noise in the input
Minimum Error
Bias variance Trade-off
• Increasing bias reduces variance and vice-versa
• Error = bias2 + variance +irreducible error
• The best model is where the error is reduced.
• Compromise between bias and variance
Source: https://www.cheatsheets.aqeel-anwar.com
Page 2 of 14
Cheat Sheet – Imbalanced Data in Classification
Blue: Label 1
Green: Label 0
Accuracy =
Correct Predictions
Total Predictions
Classifier that always predicts label blue yields prediction accuracy of 90%
Accuracy doesn’t always give the correct insight about your trained model
Accuracy: %age correct prediction
Precision: Exactness of model
Recall:
Completeness of model
F1 Score: Combines Precision/Recall
Correct prediction over total predictions
From the detected cats, how many were
actually cats
Correctly detected cats over total cats
Harmonic mean of Precision and Recall
One value for entire network
Each class/label has a value
Each class/label has a value
Each class/label has a value
Performance metrics associated with Class 1
(Is your prediction correct?) (What did you predict)
True
Predicted Labels
0
1
Actual Labels
1
0
True
Positive
False
Positive
(Your prediction is correct)
True
Negative
(You predicted 0)
FP
TP
Precision =
F1 score = 2x
False
Negative
Negative
False +ve rate =
TP + FP
(Prec x Rec)
(Prec + Rec)
TN
Specificity =
TN
+FP
Accuracy =
TN + FP
TP + TN
TP + FN + FP + TN
Recall, Sensitivity =
True +ve rate
TP
TP + FN
Possible solutions
1. Data Replication: Replicate the available data until the
number of samples are comparable
2. Synthetic Data: Images: Rotate, dilate, crop, add noise to
existing input images and create new data
3. Modified Loss: Modify the loss to reflect greater error when
misclassifying smaller sample set
Blue: Label 1
Green: Label 0
Blue: Label 1
Green: Label 0
𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝑎 ∗ 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏 + 𝑏 ∗ 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒃𝒍𝒖𝒆
𝑎>𝑏
4. Change the algorithm: Increase the model/algorithm complexity so that the two classes are perfectly
separable (Con: Overfitting)
Increase model
complexity
No straight line (y=ax) passing through origin can perfectly
separate data. Best solution: line y=0, predict all labels blue
Straight line (y=ax+b) can perfectly separate data.
Green class will no longer be predicted as blue
Source: https://www.cheatsheets.aqeel-anwar.com
Page 3 of 14
Cheat Sheet – PCA Dimensionality Reduction
What is PCA?
• Based on the dataset find a new set of orthogonal feature vectors in such a way that the
data spread is maximum in the direction of the feature vector (or dimension)
• Rates the feature vector in the decreasing order of data spread (or variance)
• The datapoints have maximum variance in the first feature vector, and minimum variance
in the last feature vector
• The variance of the datapoints in the direction of feature vector can be termed as a
measure of information in that direction.
Steps
1. Standardize the datapoints
2. Find the covariance matrix from the given datapoints
3. Carry out eigen-value decomposition of the covariance matrix
4. Sort the eigenvalues and eigenvectors
Dimensionality Reduction with PCA
• Keep the first m out of n feature vectors rated by PCA. These m vectors will be the best m
vectors preserving the maximum information that could have been preserved with m
vectors on the given dataset
Steps:
1. Carry out steps 1-4 from above
2. Keep first m feature vectors from the sorted eigenvector matrix
3. Transform the data for the new basis (feature vectors)
4. The importance of the feature vector is proportional to the magnitude of the eigen value
N
ew
e#
ur
F1
F2
Feature # 2 (F2)
N
e#
ur
at
Fe
w
Ne
Feature # 2
2
Variance
1
#
re
u
at
Fe
ew Feature # 1
Figure 3
F1
F2
at
Fe
w
Ne
Feature # 2
2
Variance
e#
ur
1
Feature # 1 (F1)
Variance
at
FeFeature # 1
Figure 2
Figure 1
F1
F2
Figure 1: Datapoints with feature vectors as
x and y-axis
Figure 2: The cartesian coordinate system is
rotated to maximize the standard deviation
along any one axis (new feature # 2)
Figure 3: Remove the feature vector with
minimum standard deviation of datapoints
(new feature # 1) and project the data on
new feature # 2
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Page 4 of 14
Cheat Sheet – Bayes Theorem and Classifier
What is Bayes’ Theorem?
• Describes the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be
related to the event.
P(A B)
• How the probability of an event changes when
we have knowledge of another event
P(A)
P(A B)
Posterior
Probability
Usually a better
estimate than P(A)
Example
• Probability of fire P(F) = 1%
• Probability of smoke P(S) = 10%
• Prob of smoke given there is a fire P(S F) = 90%
• What is the probability that there is a fire given
we see a smoke P(F S)?
Bayes’ Theorem
Likelihood
P(A)
Evidence
P(B A)
Prior
Probability
P(B)
Maximum Aposteriori Probability (MAP) Estimation
The MAP estimate of the random variable y, given that we have observed iid (x1, x2, x3, … ), is
given by. We try to accommodate our prior knowledge when estimating.
y that maximizes the product of
prior and likelihood
ˆMAP
Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE)
The MAP estimate of the random variable y, given that we have observed iid (x1, x2, x3, … ), is
given by. We assume we don’t have any prior knowledge of the quantity being estimated.
y that maximizes only the
ˆ
MLE
likelihood
MLE is a special case of MAP where our prior is uniform (all values are equally likely)
Naïve Bayes’ Classifier (Instantiation of MAP as classifier)
Suppose we have two classes, y=y1 and y=y2. Say we have more than one evidence/features (x1,
x2, x3, … ), using Bayes’ theorem
Bayes’ theorem assumes the features (x1, x2, x3, … ) are i.i.d. i.e
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Page 5 of 14
Cheat Sheet – Regression Analysis
What is Regression Analysis?
Fitting a function f(.) to datapoints yi=f(xi) under some error function. Based on the estimated
function and error, we have the following types of regression
1. Linear Regression:
Fits a line minimizing the sum of mean-squared error
for each datapoint.
2. Polynomial Regression:
Fits a polynomial of order k (k+1 unknowns) minimizing
the sum of mean-squared error for each datapoint.
3. Bayesian Regression:
For each datapoint, fits a gaussian distribution by
minimizing the mean-squared error. As the number of
data points xi increases, it converges to point
estimates i.e.
4. Ridge Regression:
Can fit either a line, or polynomial minimizing the sum
of mean-squared error for each datapoint and the
weighted L2 norm of the function parameters beta.
5. LASSO Regression:
Can fit either a line, or polynomial minimizing the the
sum of mean-squared error for each datapoint and the
weighted L1 norm of the function parameters beta.
6. Logistic Regression (NOT regression, but classification):
Can fit either a line, or polynomial with sigmoid
activation minimizing the sum of mean-squared error for
each datapoint. The labels y are binary class labels.
Visual Representation:
Linear Regression
Polynomial Regression
Bayesian Linear Regression
Logistic Regression
y
y
y
y
Label 1
Label 0
x
x
x
x
Summary:
What does it fit?
Linear
Polynomial
Bayesian Linear
A line in n dimensions
A polynomial of order k
Gaussian distribution for each point
Ridge
Linear/polynomial
LASSO
Linear/polynomial
Logistic
Linear/polynomial with sigmoid
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Page 6 of 14
Estimated function
Error Function
Cheat Sheet – Regularization in ML
What is Regularization in ML?
• Regularization is an approach to address over-fitting in ML.
• Overfitted model fails to generalize estimations on test data
• When the underlying model to be learned is low bias/high
variance, or when we have small amount of data, the
estimated model is prone to over-fitting.
• Regularization reduces the variance of the model
Figure 1. Overfitting
Types of Regularization:
1. Modify the loss function:
• L2 Regularization: Prevents the weights from getting too large (defined by L2 norm). Larger
the weights, more complex the model is, more chances of overfitting.
• L1 Regularization: Prevents the weights from getting too large (defined by L1 norm). Larger
the weights, more complex the model is, more chances of overfitting. L1 regularization
introduces sparsity in the weights. It forces more weights to be zero, than reducing the the
average magnitude of all weights
• Entropy: Used for the models that output probability. Forces the probability distribution
towards uniform distribution.
2. Modify data sampling:
• Data augmentation: Create more data from available data by randomly cropping, dilating,
rotating, adding small amount of noise etc.
• K-fold Cross-validation: Divide the data into k groups. Train on (k-1) groups and test on 1
group. Try all k possible combinations.
3. Change training approach:
• Injecting noise: Add random noise to the weights when they are being learned. It pushes the
model to be relatively insensitive to small variations in the weights, hence regularization
• Dropout: Generally used for neural networks. Connections between consecutive layers are
randomly dropped based on a dropout-ratio and the remaining network is trained in the
current iteration. In the next iteration, another set of random connections are dropped.
5-fold cross-validation
Test
Train
Original Network
Dropout-ratio = 30%
Train
Test
Train
Train
Test
Train
Train
Test
Train
Train
Test
Connections = 16
Active = 11 (70%)
Figure 3. Drop-out
Figure 2. K-fold CV
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Page 7 of 14
Active = 11 (70%)
Cheat Sheet – Famous CNNs
AlexNet – 2012
Why: AlexNet was born out of the need to improve the results of
the ImageNet challenge.
What: The network consists of 5 Convolutional (CONV) layers and 3
Fully Connected (FC) layers. The activation used is the Rectified
Linear Unit (ReLU).
How: Data augmentation is carried out to reduce over-fitting, Uses
Local response localization.
VGGNet – 2014
Why: VGGNet was born out of the need to reduce the # of
parameters in the CONV layers and improve on training time
What: There are multiple variants of VGGNet (VGG16, VGG19, etc.)
How: The important point to note here is that all the conv kernels are
of size 3x3 and maxpool kernels are of size 2x2 with a stride of two.
ResNet – 2015
Why: Neural Networks are notorious for not being able to find a
simpler mapping when it exists. ResNet solves that.
What: There are multiple versions of ResNetXX architectures where
‘XX’ denotes the number of layers. The most used ones are ResNet50
and ResNet101. Since the vanishing gradient problem was taken care of
(more about it in the How part), CNN started to get deeper and deeper
How: ResNet architecture makes use of shortcut connections do solve
the vanishing gradient problem. The basic building block of ResNet is
a Residual block that is repeated throughout the network.
Filter
Concatenation
Weight layer
x
f(x)
Weight layer
f(x)+x
1x1
Conv
+
Figure 1 ResNet Block
3x3
Conv
5x5
Conv
1x1 Conv
1x1
Conv
1x1
Conv
3x3
Maxpool
Previous
Layer
Figure 2 Inception Block
Inception – 2014
Why: Lager kernels are preferred for more global features, on the other
hand, smaller kernels provide good results in detecting area-specific
features. For effective recognition of such a variable-sized feature, we
need kernels of different sizes. That is what Inception does.
What: The Inception network architecture consists of several inception
modules of the following structure. Each inception module consists of
four operations in parallel, 1x1 conv layer, 3x3 conv layer, 5x5 conv
layer, max pooling
How: Inception increases the network space from which the best
network is to be chosen via training. Each inception module can
capture salient features at different levels.
Source: https://www.cheatsheets.aqeel-anwar.com
Page 8 of 14
Cheat Sheet – Convolutional Neural Network
Convolutional Neural Network:
The data gets into the CNN through the input layer and passes
through various hidden layers before getting to the output layer.
The output of the network is compared to the actual labels in
terms of loss or error. The partial derivatives of this loss w.r.t the
trainable weights are calculated, and the weights are updated
through one of the various methods using backpropagation.
CNN Template:
Most of the commonly used hidden layers (not all) follow a
pattern
1. Layer function: Basic transforming function such as
convolutional or fully connected layer.
a. Fully Connected: Linear functions between the input and the
output.
a. Convolutional
Layers: These layers are applied to 2D (3D) input feature maps. The trainable weights are a 2D (3D)
kernel/filter that moves across the input feature map, generating dot products with the overlapping region of the input
feature map.
b.Transposed Convolutional (DeConvolutional) Layer: Usually used to increase the size of the output feature map
(Upsampling) The idea behind the transposed convolutional layer is to undo (not exactly) the convolutional layer
Convolutional Layer
Fully Connected Layer
x1
x2
x3
w11*x
1
+ b1
+ b1
w21*x2
3
1*x
w3
Input Node
+b
y1
1
Output Node
Input Map
Kernel
Output Map
2.
a.
Pooling: Non-trainable layer to change the size of the feature map
Max/Average Pooling: Decrease the spatial size of the input layer based on
selecting the maximum/average value in receptive field defined by the kernel
b. UnPooling: A non-trainable layer used to increase the spatial size of the input
layer based on placing the input pixel at a certain index in the receptive field
of the output defined by the kernel.
3.
Normalization: Usually used just before the activation functions to limit the
unbounded activation from increasing the output layer values too high
a. Local Response Normalization LRN: A non-trainable layer that square-normalizes the pixel values in a feature map
within a local neighborhood.
b. Batch Normalization: A trainable approach to normalizing the data by learning scale and shift variable during training.
3.
Activation: Introduce non-linearity so CNN can
efficiently map non-linear complex mapping.
a. Non-parametric/Static functions: Linear, ReLU
b. Parametric functions: ELU, tanh, sigmoid, Leaky ReLU
c. Bounded functions: tanh, sigmoid
5.
Loss function: Quantifies how far off the CNN prediction
is from the actual labels.
a. Regression Loss Functions: MAE, MSE, Huber loss
b. Classification Loss Functions: Cross entropy, Hinge loss
MSE Loss
4.0
MAE Loss
2.0
mse = (x ° x̂)2
3.5
Huber Loss
2.0
mae = |x ° x̂|
1.75
1.75
3.0
1.5
1.5
2.5
1.25
1.25
2.0
1.0
1.0
1.5
0.75
0.75
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.25
0.25
0.0
-1.0
0.0
1.0
2.0
-2.0
Hinge Loss
Ω
3.0
2.5
-1.0
0.0
1.0
2.0
Cross Entropy Loss
max(0, 1 ° x̂) : x = 1
max(0, 1 + x̂) : x = °1
æ
2.0
1.5
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Page 9 of 14
-1.0
0.0
1.0
2.0
-1.0
0.0
1.0
2.0
0.8
6.0
0.6
4.0
0.4
0.2
0.0
-2.0
-2.0
1.0
2.0
0.0
æ
°ylog(p) ° (1 ° y)log(1 ° p)
8.0
1.0
0.5
1
2
: |x ° x̂| < ∞
2 (x ° x̂)
∞|x ° x̂| ° 12 ∞ 2
: else
∞ =1.9
0.0
0.0
-2.0
Ω
0.0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
Cheat Sheet – Ensemble Learning in ML
What is Ensemble Learning? Wisdom of the crowd
Combine multiple weak models/learners into one predictive model to reduce bias, variance and/or improve accuracy.
Types of Ensemble Learning: N number of weak learners
1.Bagging: Trains N different weak models (usually of same types – homogenous) with N non-overlapping subset of the
input dataset in parallel. In the test phase, each model is evaluated. The label with the greatest number of predictions is
selected as the prediction. Bagging methods reduces variance of the prediction
2.Boosting: Trains N different weak models (usually of same types – homogenous) with the complete dataset in a
sequential order. The datapoints wrongly classified with previous weak model is provided more weights to that they can
be classified by the next weak leaner properly. In the test phase, each model is evaluated and based on the test error of
each weak model, the prediction is weighted for voting. Boosting methods decreases the bias of the prediction.
3.Stacking: Trains N different weak models (usually of different types – heterogenous) with one of the two subsets of the
dataset in parallel. Once the weak learners are trained, they are used to trained a meta learner to combine their
predictions and carry out final prediction using the other subset. In test phase, each model predicts its label, these set of
labels are fed to the meta learner which generates the final prediction.
The block diagrams, and comparison table for each of these three methods can be seen below.
Ensemble Method – Bagging
Ensemble Method – Boosting
Step #1
Input Dataset
Step #1
Assign equal weights
to all the datapoints
in the dataset
Create N subsets
from original
dataset, one for each
weak model
Complete dataset
Input Dataset
Subset #1
Subset #2
Subset #3
Subset #4
Uniform weights
Step #2
Step #2b
Step #2a
Train Weak
Model #1
Train a weak model
with equal weights to
all the datapoints
•
•
alpha1
Adjusted weights
Train a weak model
with adjusted weights
on all the datapoints
in the dataset
•
•
alpha2
Adjusted weights
Train each weak
model with an
independent
subset, in
parallel
Weak Model
#1
Weak Model
#2
Final Prediction
Ensemble Method – Stacking
Step #1
Create 2 subsets from
original dataset, one
for training weak
models and one for
meta-model
Adjusted weights
Train Weak
Model #4
Step #(n+1)a
Weak Model
#4
Voting
Based on the final error on the
trained weak model, calculate a
scalar alpha.
Use alpha to increase the weights of
wrongly classified points, and
decrease the weights of correctly
classified points
Train Weak
Model #3
alpha3
Weak Model
#3
Step #3
In the test phase, predict from
each weak model and vote their
predictions to get final prediction
Step #3b
Train Weak
Model #2
Step #3a
Based on the final error on the
trained weak model, calculate a
scalar alpha.
Use alpha to increase the weights of
wrongly classified points, and
decrease the weights of correctly
classified points
Input Dataset
Subset #1 – Weak Learners
Subset
#3#2 – Meta Learner
Subset
Step #2
Train a weak model
with adjusted weights
on all the datapoints
in the dataset
Train each weak
model with the
weak learner
dataset
Train Weak
Model #1
Train Weak
Model #2
Train Weak
Model #3
Train Weak
Model #4
alpha3
x
x
x
Input Dataset
x
Subset #1 – Weak Learners
Step #n+2
In the test phase, predict from each
weak model and vote their predictions
weighted by the corresponding alpha to
get final prediction
Step #3
Voting
Train a metalearner for which
the input is the
outputs of the
weak models for
the Meta Learner
dataset
Final Prediction
Parameter
Bagging
Boosting
Stacking
Reducing variance
Reducing bias
Improving accuracy
Nature of weak
learners is
Homogenous
Homogenous
Heterogenous
Weak learners are
aggregated by
Simple voting
Weighted voting
Learned voting
(meta-learner)
Focuses on
Subset #2 – Meta Learner
Trained Weak
Model
#1
Trained Weak
Model
#2
Trained Weak
Model
#3
Meta Model
Step #4
In the test phase, feed the input to the
weak models, collect the output and feed
it to the meta model. The output of the
meta model is the final prediction
Source: https://www.cheatsheets.aqeel-anwar.com
Page 10 of 14
Final Prediction
Trained Weak
Model
#4
1/4
How to prepare for
behavioral interview?
Collect stories, assign keywords, practice
the STAR format
Keywords
List important keywords that will be populated with your personal
stories. Most common keywords are given in the table below
Conflict
Resolution
Negotiation
Compromise to
achieve goal
Creativity
Flexibility
Convincing
Handling
Crisis
Challenging
Situation
Working with
difficult people
Another team
priorities not
aligned
Adjust to a
colleague
style
Take Stand
Handling –ve
feedback
Coworker
view of you
Working with a
deadline
Your strength
Your
weakness
Influence
Others
Handling
failure
Handling
unexpected
situation
Converting
challenge to
opportunity
Decision
without enough
data
Conflict
Resolution
Mentorship/
Leadership
Stories
1. List all the organizations you have been a part of. For example
1. Academia: BSc, MSc, PhD
2. Industry: Jobs, Internship
3. Societies: Cultural, Technical, Sports
2. Think of stories from step 1 that can fall into one of the keywords categories. The
more stories the better. You should have at least 10-15 stories.
3. Create a summary table by assigning multiple keywords to each stories. This will help
you filter out the stories when the question asked in the interview. An example can be
seen below
Story
Story
Story
Story
1:
2:
3:
4:
[Convincing] [Take Stand] [influence other]
[Mentorship] [Leadership]
[Conflict resolution] [Negotiation]
[decision-without-enough-data]
STAR Format
Write down the stories in the STAR format as explained in the 2/4 part of this cheat
sheet. This will help you practice the organization of story in a meaningful way.
Icon Source: www.flaticon.com
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Page 11 of 14
2/4
How to prepare for
behavioral interview?
Direct*, meaningful*, personalized*, logical*
*(Respective colors are used to identify these characteristics in the example)
Example: “Tell us about a time when you had to convince senior executives”
Situation
S
T
A
R
Explain the situation and
provide necessary context for
your story.
Task
Explain the task and your
responsibility in the
situation
Action
Walk through the steps and
actions you took to address
the issue
Result
State the outcome of the
result of your actions
“I worked as an intern in XYZ company in
the summer of 2019. The project details
provided to me was elaborative. After
some initial brainstorming, and research I
realized that the project approach can be
modified to make it more efficient in
terms of the underlying KPIs. I decided to
talk to my manager about it.”
“I had an hour-long call with my manager
and explained him in detail the proposed
approach and how it could improve the
KPIs. I was able to convince him. He
asked me if I will be able to present my
proposed approach for approval in front of
the higher executives. I agreed to it. I was
working out of the ABC(city) office and
the executives need to fly in from
XYZ(city) office.”
“I did a quick background check on the
executives to know better about their area
of expertise so that I can convince them
accordingly. I prepared an elaborative 15
slide presentation starting with explaining
their approach, moving onto my proposed
approach and finally comparing them on
preliminary results.
“After some active discussion we were able
to establish that the proposed approach
was better than the initial one. The
executives proposed a few small changes
to my approach and really appreciated my
stand. At the end of my internship, I was
selected among the 3 out of 68 interns
who got to meet the senior vice president
of the company over lunch.”
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Page 12 of 14
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How to answer a
behavioral question?
3/4
Understand, Extract, Map, Select and Apply
Example: “Tell us about a time when you had to convince senior executives”
Understand the question
Understand
Example: A story where I was able to convince
my seniors. Maybe they had something in mind,
and I had a better approach and tried to
convince them
Extract keywords and tags
Extract
Extract useful keywords that encapsulates the
gist of the question
Example:
[Convincing], [Creative], [Leadership]
Map the keyword to your stories
Map
Shortlist all the stories that fall under the
keywords extracted from previous step
Example:
Story1, Story2, Story3, Story4, … , Story N
Select the best story
Select
From the shortlisted stories, pick the one that
best describes the question and has not been used
so far in the interview
Example: Story3
Apply the STAR method
Apply
Apply the STAR method on the selected story to
answer the question
Example: See Cheat Sheet 2/3 for details
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Page 13 of 14
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4/4
Behavioral Interview
Cheat Sheet
Summarizing the behavioral interview
Gather important topics as keywords
1
Understand and collect all the important topics
commonly asked in the interview
Collect your stories
2
How to
prepare
for the
interview
Based on all the organizations you have been a part of,
think of all the stories that fall under the keywords above
Practice stories in STAR format
3
Assign keywords to stories
4
5
U
Assign each of your story one or more keywords. This will
help you recall them quickly
Create a summary table
Create a summary table mapping stories to their associated
keywords. This will be used during the behavioral question
Understand the question
Understand the question and clarify any confusions that
you have
Extract the keywords
E
How to
answer a
question
during
interview
Practice each story using the STAR format. You will have
to answer the question following this format.
Try to extract one or more of the keywords from the
question
M
S
A
Map the keywords to stories
Based on the keywords extracted, find the stories using the
summary table created during preparation (Step 4)
Select a story
Since each keyword maybe assigned to multiple stories,
select the one that is most relevant and has not been used.
Apply the START format
Once the story has been shortlisted, apply STAR format on
the story to answer the question.
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Page 14 of 14